WITH ALL HIS HEART

Marine veteran has message for football players in U-T Honor Bowl

TEMECULA 
Josue Barron’s left leg was ripped off just below the hip after stepping on an improvised explosive device nearly three years ago in Afghanistan. He later lost his left eye, now replaced by a glass prosthetic.

Barron, who turns 24 Thursday, knows the exact date of the accident.

“September 28th of 2010,” he says.

He was 20 at the time and had been married barely seven months.

After leaving the Marine Corps, Barron battled depression. He despised people staring at him in public.

That was then. Now he wants to mentor children suffering from physical challenges and plays a mean game of wheelchair basketball.

“This guy can drive it to the hole,” says Barron’s basketball coach, David Rodarte. “He can shoot it. He’s a phenomenal athlete, especially with his amputee and his missing eye. This guy, man, he’s a stud.”

On Friday and Saturday, the U-T San Diego Honor Bowl will be held at Oceanside High. Five prep football games will be played during the two days.

Military Humvees and other armored vehicles will be on display. Weather permitting, retired Navy SEALs will parachute onto Simcox Field.

The purpose of the event is to recognize the contributions of active military and veterans — people like Barron, who will speak to some of the football teams before the games.

Barron, now living in Temecula, grew up in South Central Los Angeles. He did not like school but loved playing basketball. He didn’t play basketball at Bell High. Instead, his game was limited to night pickup action at a nearby park.

Regarding the outdoor games’ physical nature, he says, “Pretty much, there were no fouls. People just kept on playing.”

By 14, he was a gang member. He says his role was “nothing crazy. We just fought other guys in rival gangs.”

One of seven children, Barron joined the Marines so he could escape the gang lifestyle and not be a burden to his single mother.

He was in Afghanistan one month when he stepped on the IED.

“I couldn’t see because glass hit my face pretty bad,” he says. “I was left blind (in both eyes) at the moment. I kept asking my buddy, ‘Do I still have my leg?’ He said I did.”

In reality, Barron had lost his left leg. But he said Marines are trained to not share gruesome details with a fallen comrade to prevent the injured person from panicking.

After rehabilitation, Barron turned to physical activities in an effort to feel whole. He took to the slopes on a mono-ski. He raced marathons in a wheelchair. But nothing has given him the sense of accomplishment of playing wheelchair basketball.

Barron played last season for the San Diego Wolfpack, which is composed of wounded former military personnel.

Rodarte says Barron plays with “disciplined aggression. That comes from his military background more than anything. This guy hates to lose.”

Barron is proud of his Marine Corps pedigree. He sarcastically calls his prosthetic left eye his “party” eye. It’s a replica of the Marine Corps’ 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines infantry insignia. The Marine Corps code for a rifleman is 0311. Tattooed across the front of his right shoulder is 03. Across the left shoulder: 11.

In a playoff game last season, the Wolfpack were down by one with less than 10 seconds to play.

Recalls Rodarte, “We call timeout and he says, ‘Coach, I want the ball. I want the ball.’ It literally was like a movie.”

Rodarte drew up a play. The ball was inbounded to a teammate, who passed to Barron at the top of the key. With the clock ticking down, Barron hit a three to win the game.

“Nails,” says Rodarte. “Pure nails.”

Barron isn’t exactly sure what he’ll say to the football players this weekend.

“I’ll probably just tell them to keep playing their hearts out,” he says. “Whatever pain they might go through in the game, that’s temporary. Keep playing your hearts out.”

Barron admits he is shy by nature. In the aftermath of his injury, that shyness is peeling away.

“We lost 30 guys in my unit and had more than 200 casualties,” he says. “I told myself, ‘How many of those guys that died wouldn’t wish to be in my position, missing one leg, living their life?’ I told myself to forget about what anybody says. Live your life.”